Calgary Flames 2013 Draft Review

Sean Monahan was drafted 6th-overall by the Flames.

Calgary fans should be satisfied at the result of the 2013 NHL Draft. The Flames, for once, drafted very sensible and highly-rated prospects. It was very assuring to find out that the Flames would not trade any of their first-round picks. The rebuild is in full-swing as the 8-players drafted in 2013 will join the rest of the draftees from years prior and try to rebuild the Flames.

Round 1 (6th Overall): Sean Monahan – The big 6-2, 187-pound center posted 78 points in 58 games for the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL. A ’94 birth-year, Monahan was born in the Ontario city of Brampton and registered 222 total points in his three-year major-junior career. It’s safe to say that Monahan will put on a Flames sweater this season but will it just be for a short time in the beginning, or will he play more than nine games and stay in the NHL?

Round 1 (22nd Overall): Émile Poirier – Born in Montreal, Poirier played the last two season in the QMJHL with Gatineau Olympiques. He accumulated 80 points in 75 games in the 12-13 season and also racked up 101 PIMs. Porier stands at 6-1 and weighs in at 183 pounds. Expect the gritty-forward to spend one or possibly even two more seasons in the QMJHL.

The Flames selected 28th-overall Morgan Klimchuk.

Round 1 (28th Overall): Morgan Klimchuk – A Regina, Saskatoon, native, Klimchuk played all of his major-junior career in his home city with the Regina Pats of the WHL. Born on March 2, 1995, Klimchuk is a left-wing and scored 76 points in 72 games this season. He stands at 5-11, weighs 181 pounds and recently captured the U18 World Junior Classic Gold Medal for Team Canada.

Round 3 (67th Overall): Keegan Kanzig – Standing at 6-7, Kanzig a large defenseman. He’s not finding his name on the stat sheet often, he only registered 7 assists in 70 games, but he’s doing the things behind the scenes. Kanzig recorded 159 PIMs with the Victoria Royals of the WHL.

Round 5 (135th Overall): Eric Roy – Another defenseman is who the Flames took in the fifth-round. Eric Roy, 6-3 and 187 pounds, played junior in the WHL for the Brandon Wheat Kings and scored 39 points and 72 games. Thirty-seven PIMs and a -32 rating is what the Saskatchewan-native produced this past year.

Round 6 (167th Overall): Tim Harrison – Harrison is a 6-3 forward from Duxbury, Massachusetts. He played at the Dexter School, located in Brookline, Massachusetts. Harrison is committed to Colgate University for the 2013-14 season.

Round 6 (187th Overall): Rushan Rafikov – The Russian-defenseman stands at 6-1 and weighs in at 185 pounds. Rafikov played last season for Loko Yaroslavl in the Russian MHL. He scored 1 goal and 9 assists in 53 games last season as a d-man. Rafikov was also drafted in 2o12 by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL Draft.

Defenseman Joh Gilmour was taken in the 7th-round by the Calgary Flames.

Round 7 (178th Overall): John Gilmour – Stacking up on Montreal-natives, the Flames selected in the final round of the draft, defenseman John Gilmour. Gilmour spent the 12-13 season with Providence College in Rhode Island alongside fellow Flames draft-picks Mark Jankowski and Jon Gillies. The trio of draftees should develop nicely and make for an easy transition into professional hockey.

The Final Word – In all, it was a pretty successful draft for the Flames. Feaster and the rest of management kept all their players and kept all their picks, quite possibly a first. Hopefully none of these players will turn into a Greg Nemisz.